LOS ANGELES — A new Lifetime series that strips a South Carolina town of many of its adult
female residents for a week describes itself repeatedly as a “social experiment.”

“I’m really excited about this whole social experiment,” says one young woman on board with
The Week the Women Went.

When the series resumes tonight (it premiered last Tuesday), the men of Yemassee are shocked to
discover that they are expected to host a formal Southern tea party for the Pearls, a group of 60
socialites from nearby towns.

And a young Marine has an even bigger challenge: a birthday party for his girlfriend’s daughter
and a group of wild teenagers.

Meanwhile, at the women’s camp, one mother of two — overwhelmed by the experience — considers an
early departure.

The show is a remake of a BBC series already franchised elsewhere.

The only experiment actually playing out is the one that will determine just how long people
might watch such a show.

Narrator Jeff Foxworthy (who usually works as a stand-up comic) suggests that the enterprise is
not meant to be taken wholly seriously, the melodramatic gravity of the presentation aside.

The show intends to make a social point, of course: If more men were used to taking care of
their children and the household chores — not all the show’s scenarios revolve around that point,
but most do — the absence of their wives and girlfriends and mothers would cause little drama.

Yet some of the men are quite happy to get the chance to spend more time at home.

And they’re happy that their wives, removed for the duration to a Florida island resort, will
get a break from the daily grind. (Future episodes suggest, though, that the getaway won’t be all
dips in the pool and drinks with umbrellas.)

And surely some participating households must have run too well for the filmmakers to want to
include.